If you haven’t read it yet in the dead tree editions, you should soon. I’ve confirmed ownership of the domain www.LetsTalkFrank.com to four local newspapers in a statement that reads as follows:
I accept responsibility for the creation and content of www.letstalkfrank.com, a domain name that I have owned for about five years – since before the inception of the television show of the same name, with which I have no association.
The documents posted on the site are public record, and I have done nothing wrong in making this information more readily available to the public that it is intended to serve. While it would very likely be possible to quash the subpoena and remain anonymous, I choose to come forward at this point to avoid further suspicion and accusations against those who had nothing to do with – and were unaware of until after the fact – the publishing of this website.
The lawsuit filed is of a frivolous nature, intended to intimidate and harass me. However, the evolving political machine in Anderson County is far more disturbing to me than the threat of a libel suit and the resulting personal publicity.
There are candidates on the August ballot for powerful offices – sheriff, judges, and district attorney – who are or may be indebted to someone under reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing and abuse of power.
In shedding my anonymity I expose myself to possible retaliation, but do so in hope that the citizens of Anderson County will recognize the gravity of the choices to be made on August 3rd and elect officeholders who will enforce, prosecute, and rule based upon law rather than political favors owed.
So for all those who were pointing toward various candidates in the August election as having done so, they didn’t. They didn’t even know about it until after it was published. Because the campaigning has gotten rough — or perhaps because the facts themselves are rather raw — the temptation existed to blame it on election-time politics.
Don’t fall for that trick. Politics, American-style, has always been a bit rough-and-tumble, but we must be careful to see beyond the billboards, slick slogans, and catchy campaign themes.
Evaluate the quality of the individual whose name is on the ballot, his or her fitness to serve, and look closely (beyond political parties or professed lack of such) at the alliances that person has formed. If they seem to be connected to someone who does not have the County’s best interest at heart, you should probably think long and hard about what’s in it for them.
What next?